fried eggs + dates + pine nuts

breakfast, dinner, or whenever you're craving a nourishing meal.

Growing up, my mom would make herself girl dinner, after waking up at 4:30am to run 6 miles, work and manage people all day, schlep us kids around to our various schools and activities, help us with our homework, and cook and feed us a nourishing meal. The older I get, I still don’t understand how she did it, but I do understand the invariable need for a girl dinner after a long day.

Her girl dinner: eggs with dates and pine nuts. Sometimes she would eat it with slices of bread, sometimes the eggs were fried, and sometimes they were scrambled. Sometimes the dates were swapped for maple syrup. But there were always pine nuts.

Us kids would look away in absolute disgust. Eggs?! with dates!?! and nuts!?! Gross, mom. She would simply say back: “you don’t know what you’re missing.” And, as I’ve learned with almost everything in my life, she was right.

Her mom used to make the dish for her and her siblings growing up, and it’s one of those easy, throw-together recipes that stuck. For context, my mom’s side of the family is from Syria, but the dish itself originates in Persian cuisine, known as gheysava. The Persian recipe calls for frying dates in butter and cinnamon, then cracking eggs right in, usually served with bread and tea. Although, dates and eggs are eaten across the Middle East in various ways: in Egypt, agwa swaps broken dates for date paste, and in Iraq, the dish is called hnaina.

This recipe is a riff of my mom’s, but is very similar to the classic Persian recipe. First, pine nuts (a core ingredient), get dry-roasted in our pan, before adding butter, warm sweet and savory spices, and sesame seeds. Our dates get caramelized in those seeds, spices, and butter, before we crack our eggs right in. While you can stick to the pine nuts as the sole topping, I also added feta cheese and fresh herbs for added flavor.

Mom, you were right!

the recipe: fried eggs with dates and pine nuts

prep time: 5 minutes | cook time: 15 minutes

serves: 2-3 people

ingredients:

• 1/4 cup pine nuts

• 2 tbsp. butter

• 5-6 medjool dates, pitted and torn in half

• 5-6 large eggs

• 1 tbsp. sesame seeds

• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

• 1/2 tsp. ground coriander

• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp. ground cumin

• 2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

• fresh herbs of choice (I like mint + dill)

• bread, for serving (I like pita, lavash, or pide bread)

recipe:

1. Dry-roast the nuts: Add the pine nuts to a medium pan over medium heat, constantly tossing the nuts around, until they become golden and fragrant. Remove nuts and place on a paper-towel lined plate. Set aside.

2. Make the dates + eggs: to the same pan, add the butter, coriander, cinnamon, cumin, salt, and sesame seeds, allowing the spices and seeds to toast in the butter until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the torn dates, allowing to fry in the butter and spices, turning halfway, about 3 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium-low, then crack eggs directly in the pan, evenly around the dates. Cover the pan and cook eggs until the whites are set, breaking up the egg to allow the egg white to cook if necessary.

3. Top + serve: Once egg whites are set, remove pan from heat, and break up each egg yolk, allowing the yolk to ooze around the eggs and dates. Top with the toasted pine nuts, crumbled feta cheese, and fresh herbs. Serve with bread immediately.

Enjoy!

xx Brittany